50 Greatest Soap Opera Actors: Honorable Mention

Now that the countdown of the 50 Greatest Soap Opera Actors has concluded, We Love Soaps would like to pay tribute to another set of wonderful actors. These men received multiple votes from our panel and just missed the countdown. For us, it's more about honoring their work that has touched so many lives more than a specific ranking. Join us in paying tribute to these fine talents and share your memories/videos/photos in the comments section. Comments from our panel are included where applicable.

FORMER SOAP ACTORS

NAME: George ReinholtSOAP ROLES: Steve Frame, ANOTHER WORLD (1968-1975, 1989); Tony Lord, ONE LIFE TO LIVE (1975-1977); Erik Fulda, THE SECRET STORM (1967-1968)

Alan Carter: Unconventional to say the least, Reinholt still became a sex symbol cause what Steve and later Tony on OLTL exuded on screen was confidence and romance. In lesser hands it might have come off....cheesy? But even the fact he made the rather one note Jacquie Courtney (sorry Jacquie) alive on screen says something about ...chemistry making no sense on paper.

Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): Hammy and handsome to the max, his uber posturing Steve Frame was one half of daytime's great supercouples with simpy Alice Matthews (Jacqie Courtney.) on early ANOTHER WORLD. A bad boy who came to have a rather sad later life, he once sent a thoughtful poem to me, Marlena De Lacroix.

Alan Carter: He looked a little too much like Tom Selleck for anyone to think he was a good actor, but take away the mustache (rare for a soap good guy) and at the heart was a smart and always edgy performance on simmer, if not pre boil.

Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): As the original Edward Quartermaine, he made the character the ultimate in sarcastic and entertaining. No one did a throwaway line better. Just incomparable in scenes battling with Edward's daughter Tracy (deliciously played by Jane Elliot).

Roger Newcomb: His Don Craig would be a great patriarch on DAYS right now.

NAME: Henderson ForsytheSOAP ROLES: David Stewart, AS THE WORLD TURNS (1960-1990); David Stewart, OUR PRIVATE WORLD (1965); Jim Benson, FROM THESE ROOTS (1958-1960); Martin Sprode, THE EDGE OF NIGHT (1958)

Roger Newcomb: David and Ellen were such a huge part of AS THE WORLD TURNS history. I hope Forsythe is remembered in a flashback or photo before show ends its run.

Alan Carter: To many, he might just be a character actor and a sometime plot device but Cowles was the epitome of humor and white trash...and there have been lots of cookie cutter roles on daytime before...but Im not sure before, or after, there has ever been a flashy, trashy, pimp/nut one could love or love to hate.

NAME: David ForsythSOAP ROLES: Priest, ONE LIFE TO LIVE (2009); John, DAYS OF OUR LIVES (2001); Jim Thomasen, ALL MY CHILDREN (1997-1998); John Hudson, ANOTHER WORLD (1987-1997); Hogan McCleary, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW (1983-1986); T.J. Canfield, TEXAS (1981-1982)

NAME: James DePaivaSOAP ROLES: Max Holden, ONE LIFE TO LIVE (1987-1990, 1992-2003, 2007); Eddie Holton, GENERAL HOSPITAL (1985)

Patrick Erwin: Kelker-Kelly’s bold performances made me take notice. He shook up AW as Sam Fowler, and then took DAYS’ Bo Brady in an interesting, fresh direction.

CURRENT SOAP ACTORS

NAME: Bill HayesSOAP ROLES: Doug Williams, DAYS OF OUR LIVES (1970-1984, 1986-1987, 1993, 1996, 1999-present)
Alan Carter: Does it even need to be stated? Bill and Susan Hayes reigned supreme for a decade as daytime's most talked about couple...on and off screen. Its hard for me to even remember where their on screen and off screen personas begin and end.

NAME: Doug DavidsonSOAP ROLES: Paul Williams, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (1978-present)

Alan Carter: I admittedly never got the Bo and Hope thing....to me they were Bore and Hopeless...but watching Reckell with Crystal Chappell...I get it...now. A lot. And now when I see Bo and Hope together, it makes more sense to me. May the writers keep the tension high and keep Reckell torn between two women and unhappy...

Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): As Professor Michael Malone's alter ego Patrick on OLTL, a revelation of masculinity and romanticism. Even held it together playing Zack on ALL MY CHILDREN, the most ill-defined soap character ever written. My only soap crush (from afar) in all my years of professional soap journalist.

NAME: Trevor St. JohnSOAP ROLES: Todd Manning, ONE LIFE TO LIVE (2003-present)

Patrick Erwin: I loathe the character of Todd Manning and have issues with OLTL’s positioning of Todd as an antihero. But that doesn’t diminish the fact that St. John is an engaging actor who makes fresh, unpredictable choices every day.

Alan Carter: Prior to Kristoff's emergence on daytime, young black males were largely limited to thugs or window dressing or illiterates. As the confident, intelligent and sometimes conflicted Neil, KSJ opened up the door to a better represented African American hero.

In current soap actors, I'd like to add Y&R's Billy Miller to the honorable mentions.This guy bats it out of the park on a daily basis, even when paired with Ameliea Heinle.Probably one of the best young actors of his generation.

As much as I am thrilled to see George Reinholt make the honorable mention list, I can't help but wonder if it was met with sheer grimaces from the panelists who threw in their two cents. I take it that the dubious omission of Jacquie Courtney from both the Top 50 and HB actress list made the powers that be at WLS realize that a wrong needed to be corrected. But Jacquie is still missing from the actress list and instead of praising Reinholt for his acting and characters he portrayed, the obligatory references to his real life issues and the criticism of Jacquie's acting just had to be brought up here.

Although the gesture was of good intentions, it still comes out smelling funky.

I love, love, love lists but think it's kinda sad that Darnell Williams was the only black actor on your 'greatest' list...nice to see Kristoff on the honorable mention list and it woulda been nice to see Keith Hamilton Cobb on there too....I know it's the fault of short sighted writers and casting directors, but still kinda sad....

I think Greg Rikaart should be on this list. I also believe that Van Hansis and Matthew Ashford, and possibly even Bradford Anderson deserve a mention on this list as well. Besides Matthew none of those mentioned have reached the ten year mark yet but their talent can not be denied. They are very versatile and very raw, able to play off emotions without much effort and make you believe in the characters they are playing.

What, no Drake Hogestyn? How can one actor play as many roles as he did on DAYS to perfection and not at least get a honorable mention? Drake also on a regular bases had some of the worst written garbage to try to make sense of, yet every one of his performances were played with conviction. Drake also kicks arse in the emotion department.

I'm looking sooooooo forward to seeing Drake bring Jerry Parker to life on REALITY BYTES THE SERIES. Maybe with awesome writing backing him, this man will stop being so UNDER-rated. Anyway, just my two cents.

Why the heck isn't Matthew Ashford on the list? He single-handedly made DOOL watchable for a lot of people for a lot of years. It's just too bad that DOOL never appreciated that the quirkiness he brought to Jack Deveraux is what set Jack apart from all over soap heroes. He was an unlikely hero after being such a great villain. Watching the transformation was a joy and please and his stint on that show ended much to soon. He also did a great job on General Hospital in a much under-utilized role and his return to DOOL was the only reason I started watching that show again. It's too bad Ken Corday and all the mediocre writers didn't know how to write anything other than standard soap opera drivel and try to force Ashford into the same box as Drake Hogestyn, Peter Reckell and Steven Nichols. Different CAN be good. Too bad nobody in soaps ever learned that lesson and now soaps are deader than a doornail.

Why no mention of James Pritchett, Gerald Gordon or David O'Brien? These wonderful actors helped keep the NBC soap, The Doctors, at the top of the ratings during the late 1960's to the mid 1970s. James Pritchett and Gerald Gordon both won an Emmy for their daytime work. The Doctors also won the Best Daytime Emmy in 1972 and 1974, thanks in part to these men.

I was disappointed that John Reilly (Sean/GH) didn't make the original list of top 50 but then to omit him from the next best list?? He contributed more to GH in it's classic years than John Ingle has to current GH...no disrespect to John Ingle. Glad to see David Lewis on the list.

I was disappointed that John Reilly (Sean/GH) didn't make the original list of top 50 but then to omit him from the next best list?? He contributed more to GH in it's classic years than John Ingle has to current GH...no disrespect to John Ingle. Glad to see David Lewis on the list.

This list doesn't have 50 as I thought it would. There are only 26. The honorable mention list for the actresses was a complete (or "incomplete") 50. Surely, there can be 24 more great actors to add for honorable mention here.